In primary elections, the public interest is secondary

Today is primary election day. Will you be rushing off to the polls first thing in the morning to make sure your vote is counted in this vibrant democracy of ours?

I won’t. I got my sample ballot in the mail a couple of weeks ago. There are no contests on the Republican side. There are no contests on the Democratic side, either. I might drop by the polls late in the day to chat with my neighbors. But none of our votes will have any effect whatsoever.

If only we had a guy like Jeff Boss in our neck of the woods. That would liven up an Election Day.

Boss is a 48-year-old resident of Hudson County who is seeking the Democratic nomination for state Senate under the banner "I have proof NSA arranged 9/11." When I was calling around to candidates the other day, I got Boss on the phone. He patiently told me about the 300 people he has on tape explaining an elaborate conspiracy involving the National Security Agency.

Wacky? That’s for the voters in his district to decide. But at least they have a choice: the new Boss or the old boss.

That would be Nicholas Sacco, who is not only the incumbent Democratic state senator, but also a mayor and an assistant school superintendent. Sacco collects $278,600 in public pay.

"It’s outrageous," said Boss. "Nick Sacco’s making a lot more than Chris Christie."

Sacco’s not alone in profiting from public service. The Star-Ledger recently reported that 36 of the state’s 120 legislators have publicly funded positions in addition to their salaries. At least 17 had spouses on the public payroll. Another 17 were receiving public pensions in addition to their salaries.

And there’s not much you can do about it. The people who have those jobs are the same people who set up the legislative districts. And in April, those districts were set up to keep the politicians smiling and the voters yawning.

In 24 of the 40 legislative districts, there are no contests in either party. So thank God for guys like Boss. Once I got him off the topic of 9/11, he had a lot of interesting ideas. So did the rest of the candidates who are challenging the party picks. Get them on the phone and it turns out they have a lot to say.

I mean that literally. With most of them, I could have put the phone down and gone to get a snack without disrupting their diatribes. Each had a philosophy of government that required explanation in intricate detail.

Typical was George Gallenthin, who’s running for the Republican nomination for state Senate in the 5th District, which includes parts of Camden and Gloucester counties. Gallenthin has tea party backing, but he’s a long shot to win the nomination. He’s already made a major contribution to the public good, however. Gallenthin was the plaintiff in a 2007 land-use case in which a unanimous New Jersey Supreme Court threw out the broad definition of "blight" being used all over the state to condemn private property for redevelopment.

"We are run like a Third World country down here," Gallenthin told me. "Camden County has been suppressed by not a power broker, but by a warlord."

He didn’t name the warlord in question, but George Norcross probably wouldn’t mind if he did. The South Jersey party boss is the brother of state Democratic Sen. Donald Norcross, who holds the seat for which Gallenthin is contending.

Gallenthin, a lawyer and Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, would probably make an excellent senator. But he’s got little chance of making it to the November ballot. To do that, he’d need lots of contributions that would permit him to buy ads and send out mailings. It’s hard to come up with that sort of cash without becoming the exact sort of hack you’re trying to replace.

The tea party type with the best chance today may be Bill Eames. He’s a Whippany resident running in the 27th District, which straddles Essex and Morris counties. Though the district is made up mostly of suburbs that should lean Republican, incumbent state Sen. Richard Codey, a Democrat, is considered a heavy favorite to retain the seat.

But the primary promises some drama. The party pick for the GOP nod, Essex Fells Councilman William Sullivan, comes from the Essex part of the district, where few Republicans reside. So the challenger might have a chance.

Morris voters are lucky this year. They’ve also got two races going in the district that dominates the county, the 25th. In the Senate race, longtime incumbent Anthony Bucco is being challenged by Freeholder Director William Chegwidden for the GOP nomination. In the Assembly race, Bucco’s son, also named Anthony, faces a challenge from John Sierchio of Boonton Township. Also in that three-way race for two GOP nominations is incumbent Michael Patrick Carroll.

Sierchio would seem an unlikely GOP nominee in the Christie era. He’s a Bloomfield police officer who’s being funded in part by unions interested in protecting public pensions.

"My opponents have been painting me as a big union guy," Sierchio told me. "But everyone in the pension system wants to protect the pension system."

During his hour-long harangue, Sierchio told me just how he would do so. That was interesting, but he made another point more relevant to today’s proceedings. Sierchio proposed that legislators should be term-limited at eight years, just like the governor.

"They pass these maps for incumbent protection. But if we had term limits, they wouldn’t have to do that," said Sierchio.

True enough. But those term limits would have to come from the very same people who gave us that map. So don’t expect any big surprises this evening — or this November.